Anger Builds at Dudamel's Mishandling of Oil Leak

Anger is building nationwide over Gustavo Dudamel’s slow reaction to the catastrophic BP oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.

Critics from around the country have faulted the young Venezuelan maestro’s “sluggish reaction” and “bumbled handling” of the Deep Water Horizon oil spill that has continued to pour millions of gallons of crude oil into the ecologically fragile waters off the Gulf coast. As of today 52% of public opinion polls rate Dudamel’s performance as “poor” to “very poor” in his handling of the crisis. Yesterday the New York Post ran a headline saying “Slick? Who’s Slick Now?”

Said an obviously outraged Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal in a hastily called press conference, “Dudamel was off touring with his orchestra from Tinseltown when he should have been home monitoring the developments and at least looking like he was in charge. Instead he was wringing the last bit of angst from the Pathétique and conducting Mahler without a score. I mean…what a show-off, when he could have been here with me having a photo op on the beach!”

“This is definitely Dudamel’s Katrina,” proclaimed Fox News commentator Sean Hannity. “No doubt about it. Say what you will about his mop of curls and his rags-to-riches story, the guy has dropped the ball here by failing to take the reins and put British Petroleum on notice. Every day that the oil continues to leak and your shrimp taco tastes like antifreeze, you’re gonna see The Dude’s ratings drop like a cement casket into the Hudson.”

Injecting a note of sage caution into the fracas, the New York Times today released an editorial that attempts to weigh both sides of the controversy.

“Mr. Dudamel, it must be remembered, was, rightly or wrongly, greeted as a savior of classical music when he first arrived on the scene. Citizens around the country are now seeing how he measures up to such expectations. That he has been unable to bring about the solution to all of the country’s needs, including the Deep Water Horizon spill, only serves to remind us that he is still a young and untested talent. To be fair, Mr. Dudamel never has made such claims for himself. Rumor has it that he is in fact still enjoying himself and has no intentions of looking for another career, be it a toreador or a shortstop.”